Election Night as a Journalist and Mom

This presidential election is the 5th one I’ve covered as a broadcast journalist. I may be an old journalist, but election night does not get old for me. The one bummer is not being home to watch history with my kids. Instead, I was in Sacramento covering the Democrat watch party for Prop 30, which would raise taxes for people who make $250,000 or more a year and hike the sales tax by a quarter cent to help close a $6 billion budget gap. The race was beyond close, and in the hours after the polls closed it wasn’t looking good for the initiative. For a party sponsored by California Democrats, this place should have been partying like it was 1999, but these people were having a pity party crying in their beers.

No matter how grim things look, you can always count on a politician talking on camera trying to spin things in the most positive light as possible.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Torlakson, trying to stay positive about Prop30

Politics is a dog eat dog world, so it was only fitting that Governor Jerry Brown’s dog Sutter showed up.

By the time NBC Bay Area Reporter Cheryl Hurd delivered her final report sometime after 11 p.m., the race was still “too close to call.”

However, the ballot was no longer behind. It was ahead by the slimmest of margins, and that lead would ultimately turn into a victory.

Back at home, Olivia was doing a victory dance because she was allowed to stay up past her bedtime until the presidential race was called. Notice she was watching NBC. I have taught her well.

She’s now old enough to understand the significance of an election. and from what I was told, she was into it. Either that or she was gloating that she was still awake while her little sisters were sent to bed. It was probably a little bit of both.

I doubt I’m raising a political junkie quite yet, but I hope she and the other girls are able to appreciate politics and our American government a little more because of the job I do.